I’m honestly not quite sure if I fully understand the reading. I went into it thinking although, Mike told us that this would be the hardest thing we read all semester that it wouldn’t be too bad. And at times I believed that it wasn’t. But in the end I was left confused about the point Orwell was trying to come across.
In the beginning Orwell is talking about how the English language over time has begun to “collapse”. Our generation has picked up “bad habits” when it comes to writing and speaking because of our “foolishness” and how that has developed over generations and generations. He brings us badly constructed or worded quotes and discusses why they are bad. He discusses how the use of metaphors is declining or at least people actually knowing what they mean is. Also he makes the point that people use “big” words to embellish, (notice what I did there? Haha) text to make a point sound more believable or correct. This happens in politics all the time. And most of the time, they’re meaningless.
I got that out of this article several things; however, I guess I’m just not clear what the true point Orwell was trying to get across. 1. Political English language is different from everyday language for many people. Politicians do things like use bigger, deeper, more complicated words to go around what they really mean to say. They also do this to make a deeper point. 2. That the English language has declined over the years and our generation likes to short hand things and get straight to the point. 3. We should try to change that. We should try to dig deeper into our minds, not write the way we normally would and use language we’re not used to. Or maybe he means just the opposite. See, I’m not quite sure. I hope I’m not the only one having this problem with this essay, I guess it’s one of those things you’ll have to read over a few times to fully comprehend it. I think I’ll go do that right now.
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